That’s great news; but,… Can anyone explain why? On one hand it would seem to make W/C claims even more lucretive. Of course, the claims process would be much simpler. Someone with a lot more resources than me should make a serious study of this. This would make a very practicle Masters or Doctoral thesis.

It’s because Accident policies pay monies directly to the insured, so if they claim under the Accident policy, they effectively get paid for being injured. They don’t even have to miss a minimum number of days of work, the policies just pay based on a specified injury. If they claim the injury under workers comp, they never receive any monies with the exception of lost wages.

I would maintain a certain level of doubt about these findings without knowing more about the methods of the study. For one thing, there is a random element to the occurrence of comp claims, so they bounce around. This would lead to a substantial share of companies having fewer claims than their previous year, just on the basis of chance. Second, we don’t know what share of those surveyed actually responded, so there could well be non-response bias contributing to the results if firms with improving claims rates were more likely to reply.
So, while it’s intriguing, findings are far from far from definitive and might merit more study.
Of course, for marketing purposes, maybe it’s just too good to validate!

It’s logical to assume that accident and disability insurance would sifen off claims from Worker’s Comp.The key concept here is a risk transfer from employer (worker’s comp) to employee (voluntary accident and disability insurance). That’s not altogether a bad thing as it tends to put more $ in the employee’s pocket in a time of need.

So if a person gets hurt on the job, the injured party just puts in a claim with Aflac instead of the Work Comp carrier – in PA it is mandatory to report all work injuries to the carrier within 24-48 hours..?

People who are hurt outside of work with no insurance will fake an on the job accident to have medical bills paid or cover lost wages. Having AFLAC or other insurance means no reason to file fraudulent WC claims.

The presumption here is that by offering Voluntary Accident and Disability, your Workers’ Compensation experience magically improves. The theory is that the voluntary products cut down on fraudulent WC claims. That’s not a cause and effect. The WC experience can improve from a host of other factors. In general, WC experience has been improving in the past years.It seems like AFLAC performed a survey and is trying to piggy back on that WC experience improvement.

Consider a worker that has a $5,000 deductible and no insurance. If he/she gets hurt on a weekend at home, why would he not wait until Monday and put in a WC claim for his personal injury, saying he did it at work. If he is short of cash for that medical deductible he will have to consider a fraudulent claim to benefit his family. Especially in this tough economy.